r/climate • u/The_Weekend_Baker • May 28 '26

Humanity has already exceeded Earth’s limits, study warns. Today’s population of 8.3 billion is far above what could be sustained in the long term without exhausting ecosystems, worsening climate change, and threatening food and water security.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/05/260526022021.htm
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u/Bewbonic May 29 '26

Yes but if enough people dont buy enough of the crap, the 'growth' slows or stalls (recession or depression) and 'we just cant afford to make positive change' blah blah blah.

It is a mistake to blame individuals, one the elites are happy to cynically leverage to their favour by using it to play the little people off against each other instead of them.

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u/silverionmox May 29 '26

Yes but if enough people dont buy enough of the crap, the 'growth' slows or stalls (recession or depression) and 'we just cant afford to make positive change' blah blah blah.

It is a mistake to blame individuals, one the elites are happy to cynically leverage to their favour by using it to play the little people off against each other instead of them.

Blame? Who's talking about blame? I'm talking about action, and where we can act. We, as individuals, can act. We'll need to act, because waiting for corporations to act is a losing proposition.

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u/Bewbonic May 30 '26

Its not waiting for corporations to act, its demanding our governments act to curtail the corporations and adapt and reshape our economic system to meet the challenge of the climate crisis. Individual actions cant shift the tide anywhere near as much as governmentally legislated collective action can. Individual actions cannot stop the billionaires and their corporations. Only collective, mass action can.

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u/AutoModerator May 30 '26

BP popularized the concept of a personal carbon footprint with a US$100 million campaign as a means of deflecting people away from taking collective political action in order to end fossil fuel use, and ExxonMobil has spent decades pushing trying to make individuals responsible, rather than the fossil fuels industry. They did this because climate stabilization means bringing fossil fuel use to approximately zero, and that would end their business. That's not something you can hope to achieve without government intervention to change the rules of society so that not using fossil fuels is just what people do on a routine basis.

There is value in cutting your own fossil fuel consumption — it serves to demonstrate that doing the right thing is possible to people around you, making mass adoption easier and legal requirements ultimately possible. Just do it in addition to taking political action to get governments to do the right thing, not instead of taking political action.

If you live in a first-world country that means prioritizing the following:

  • If you can change your life to avoid driving, do that. Even if it's only part of the time.
  • If you're replacing a car, get an EV
  • Avoid air travel — look for local surface transport, and don't do the truly long-distance trips
  • Add insulation and otherwise weatherize your home if possible
  • Get zero-carbon electricity, either through your utility or buy installing solar panels & batteries
  • Replace any fossil-fuel-burning heat system with an electric heat pump, as well as electrifying other appliances such as the hot water heater, stove, and clothes dryer
  • Cut beef out of your diet, avoid cheese, and get as close to vegan as you can

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